6 Gardening Tips and Trick for Beginners
I wanted to share 6 tips to get your summer garden started. Let us get into it.
The first tip I have is choosing your spot and considering how much space you have to work with.
When choosing a spot, make sure to choose one that gets lots of good sun. Most crops need about 4-8 hours of sun a day, so we want to make sure our spot can accommodate that. We also want to consider how much space we want to use for gardening. Some plants, like tomatoes and okra will grow really tall and bushy. Other plants like squash and watermelon are going to vine out really long. Think about and consider how much space you can have for you garden, and how much you can give to your crops.
My second tip is to choose the crops that you want to grow.
This may seem like a no brainer, but I wanted to give a couple pieces of advice or give a couple tips on some crops that you can choose.
1: Think about native plants.
What is native to your area? How can you create a nice ecosystem of plants that you know can thrive where you live? Also think about companion planting. Companion planting is something that I like to do. That is kind of the way that I situate my garden. That is when you plant plants together that can really benefit from each other and grow well together. You keep ones that do not grow too well together, far away. Companion planting that I have going on right now are my tomato and basil, which both enhance the flavor for each other. My sage and tomato. Sage helps to growth of the tomato. I have some jalapeño with my squash, cucumbers, and pumpkins because they help those vegetables not develop root rot. I have geraniums and marigolds spread throughout my garden to keep away different pests since they do not like the smell. All of those are some examples of companion planting that I am doing. It is something that you can consider as well.
2: Make sure you have some really great pollinators in the garden.
Some pollinators that I have going are sunflowers, echinacea, marigolds, geraniums, nasturtiums, to name a few. Those pollinators are going to help bring the bees out and get that pollination process going and continue. Think about that when you are choosing the vegetables you want to grow.
The third tip I give is to think about the medium that you want to grow your vegetables in.
What are you going to grow them in? Are you going to do a container garden? Are you going to be growing them in the ground? Are you going to be doing raised beds? Think about how you are going to grow all of your crops and what that best looks like for you and your dwelling.
The fourth tip is choosing your soil.
When I was first starting out gardening, I thought I could use any old type of soil. I remember going and buying a big bag of in-ground soil and thinking I could put it in my raised bed. That part of my raised bed did not turn out so well. I did not get the best result with that because I put in-ground soil in the raised bed. Make sure you are getting the right soil. If you are doing gardening in the ground, you will need a soil amendment, something to add nutrients to the soil. If you are doing containers or raised beds, you will need the raised bed or container soil. Go to your local nursery. Let them help you. I have gone plenty of times to my local nursery or seed store, asked them what is some really good soil to use for the different type of gardening that I am doing. They have been really helpful. Let that also be a way to guide you too.
The fifth tip is getting a good watering system going.
I like to water in the morning or the late evening. Try to avoid watering in the middle of the day, especially if you live in a super hot climate because then the water is going to evaporate and your plants will not get that good nourishment. So, get a good watering schedule. Figure out what is best for you. Figure out what is best for your crops. How often do they need to be watered? Let that guide you.
My sixth tip is have fun! Do not give up! You can do this!
There will be obstacles. There will be failures. There will be things that go wrong. It is ok. It is part of the process. It is how we grow and learn. There will probably be other stuff happening too. It is part of the process. It is how we learn and how we grow. So do not give up. Keep the course. You can do this. You have got this.
I hope those 6 tips help you and are encouragement for you to get your summer garden started. Happy Gardening!
